Convertible Car Seat (5-70 LBS)

The Britax Boulevard 70 is now my top recommended Britax car seat. A big thanks goes out to Britax USA for providing us with a demo. Britax recently overhauled their entire convertible car seat line, coming out with the newly improved Next Generation series equipped with new gadgets, improved safety features and increased weight limits between 55-70 pounds.  The Britax Boulevard is the same size as its better known cousin the Marathon, but it comes with the added True Side Impact Protection, which has extra padding, an easy-to-use height adjustment feature and energy-absorbing foam that lines the head restraint. When I wrote about the Marathon, I recommended going with the larger seats that have the higher weight limit (70 lbs) and I stick by that choice over the Roundabout if you have room in your car.

Some features that differentiate Britax Car Seats:

• Locking clips which make the seats very easy to install using a regular seat belt in the case that you are traveling or don’t have a LATCH in your car.
• An industry first reversible tether (Versa-Tether). When the seat is in the rear facing position, the tether is attached using a special clip to the underside of one of the front seats. This feature dramatically improves installation and security. Once you see how well this works, you will be surprised that no other companies offers this feature.
• The Britax LATCH clips, which you can see in the picture (above right) are designed like seatbelts and are extremely easy to attach and release versus other seats. They also store away inside the seat when not in use.
• Built in Lock-Offs, both forward facing and rear facing, are designed for easy reach and operation when using traditional belt routing.

Some features that differentiate New Generation Car Seats:

• SafeCell Technology featuring Safecells located in the base of the seat, compress in a crash significantly lowering the center of gravity and counteracting the forward rotation of the child’s seat.  The Safecells reduce the risk of our child crashing into the seat in front of them during a crash, minimizing potential injury
• Steel bars located under the car seat strengthen the connection to the vehicle and reduce forward flexing of the child seat during a crash, thus minimizing the risk of your child being propelled forward and hitting the seat in front. 
• Rear and forward facing lock-offs that ensure a snug lap and shoulder belt installation with minimal effort

The Boulevard 70's True Side Impact Protection (TSIP) includes deep side walls and head support to better protect your child in the case of a side collision. The system is also a huge improvement over the original side impact system that was developed by Britax for the quickly discontinued Britax Wizard, which was too obtrusive. The protection was so close to my child’s head that it made me feel claustrophobic. The newer TSIP system has redesigned side wings that stay out of the way—yet provide great neck support during naps. My son did not notice the difference from his old Marathon car seat.

The other really nice feature of the Boulevard 70 (inherited from the old Britax Advantage seat) is the multi-position headrest. The height of the headrest can be adjusted to fit any size without removing the seat and unhooking the straps. The Boulevard also has a removable body pillow to keep newborns snug in the rear-facing position, as well as the Britax LATCH Bar, which is a freestanding bar on the outside of the seat that makes it simple to attach the seat using the LATCH anchors

Britax CS Boulevard: The Britax CS Boulevard is the same seat just with Britax's Click and Safe technology. The Click and Safe feature is an audible aide to help determine when the harness is secure by clicking when the harness straps are snug. Basically, when you hear the click, you know you can stop tightening.

Devil's Advocate:

As great as the larger Britax seats (Marathon, Boulevard) are, they may not fit well in smaller cars—assuming you don’t want to slide the passenger seat way forward and play Driving Miss Daisy. You will also have a hard time squeezing three 70 lb.-limit car seats in the back seat or lugging them through an airport.